Heart of the Country

Hmm. I am alternating between rereading the Levendeur series and a volume on my shelf long ignored - Heart of the Country, by Greg Matthews.

I have now reached the halfway point of the latter. I don't know - I thought I was fairly open-minded but this book is described as a "gritty narrative"and that is putting it mildly. There is absolutely nothing attractive about the land or people of mid-19th century Kansas in this book. I know the West has been romanticized and whitewashed to the point of nausea, but this is too far the other direction. I have held out on books before, hoping it will get better. Sometimes it never happens (Barcelona, by another Australian, Robert Hughes). Even when the anti-hero gets treated poorly, I just thought, "You are such a jerk, you deserved that!"The story has improved just enough to keep me interested.

Seeing Sarah

I dragged Robert down to see Sarah Vowell. Neither he or I had been to the Orpheum in ages, I know I had not been since it was still a regular movie theater in '70.

It is a beautiful building but still a bit shabbier than I expected. And Sarah, she was a hoot as I expected. Dressed very plainly, black slacks and top. Sorta awkward, a bit self-effacing but a sharp wit.

Several of Butler's English faculty, but no history ones that I could spot. Jim Erickson - seeing him takes me back to the days when I danced on the edge of Wichita's news media.

I never thought I would do this, but I actually bought a copy of Vowell's latest book and stood in line to get it autographed. Oh, why not? :-)